Quote:
Originally Posted by wrenegade
Onni did their very best to mobilize all the people they could to come out and support the project, there is nothing wrong with that. They asked me (I was unfortunately out of town) as well as asked me to talk to any friends who might be interested. It was a big project with many public benefits for the City. That site is only going to be developed once, it should be done right because it's going to be there for the next 60+ years. Some on council complained that the Public Hearing was hijacked, well, just because the developer actually got people out in support and not enough people stood up to oppose it does not mean it was hijacked. It's really unfortunate, even more so because I'm sure Onni will come back in January with two 180' towers which will hardly seems any different than a 240 footer and a 180 footer from the street (and Stella Jo Dean Park will still be shadowed), the office space will be cut in half (or gone) and I'm sure the daycare will disappear. It will all be OCP compliant and council won't be able to reject it. A handful of people who live in Springhill Place (140 east 14th) will retain a little more of their view and EVERYONE else loses the public benefits.
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Very sad double standards....as if the North Vancouver seniors aren't great with mobilizing their anti-development supporters every time there's a major development proposed (like the proposed ship-shaped tower at the Foot of Lonsdale some years ago, which would have given the city a public swimming pool among many of its public amenities!). The NIMBYs/seniors might as well be a city-sanctioned mob rule!
About that city councillor that argued there weren't enough benefits for the city and that what was provided were "trinkets"....well, what do you really expect? As much as they'd like to think it's like a massive Downtown Vancouver redevelopment that can afford to provide more public amenities, it's not (although certainly large for North Vancouver). A daycare plus 12 affordable housing units is a good win. And it's not like more public amenities are "free" at the cost to the developer...these costs are passed down to the buyer, which hinders affordability.
Small town thinking. Very disappointing.
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